Mammalian cells containing a nucleic acid that encodes a recombinant protein are often used to produce therapeutically or commercially important proteins. Although several high throughput (HT) cell culture systems have been used within the biotechnology industry for fed-batch processes for years, no HT model for a perfusion-based cell culture using shake flasks and microcarriers is known to exist.
Shake flasks containing microcarriers have been used in short-term batch (non-perfusion) culture processes to produce viral vaccines. The cell densities in these methods of producing viral vaccines were low due to the shear stress caused by the microcarriers. In addition, the recovery of the viral products from the culture was difficult.